KIRSTY LAW’S bucket list for June is pretty straightforward; qualify for the Olympics and get a ticket to watch Scotland play England at Wembley.
At this point, it’s hard to say what might be the tougher mission. The 34 year-old discus specialist is certainly in good shape as she plots a path to Tokyo, recently throwing a personal best of 58.82m that broke her previous record by almost a metre.
That achievement took the Inverness athlete to second spot on the all-time Scottish rankings and eighth in the British list, and gives the two-time British champion encouragement that she could yet achieve her lifelong dream of competing at an Olympic Games.
She knows she will need to extend her personal best by another few metres at least but she is not discouraged by that prospect. “I knew I was in good shape before I got my PB as training had been going well,” she said. “And I’d been working on loads of stuff that hadn’t gone so well for me over the past few years.
“So I knew something good was coming. And I had a good feeling as soon as I released the discus. But I still want more. And I know there’s more there to come from me.
“The A standard for the Olympics is 63.50m and the British base standard is 62.52m. And there’s also a points system. It’s pretty complicated.
“But effectively the higher level of competition you do, the more points you get. So it’s about making sure I pick and choose the right events to maximise my opportunity.
"The British championships are at the end of June so I should know by then for sure if I’ve a chance of going.
“Obviously getting to the Olympics is the dream so I want to try to get as close to that standard as I can and then we’ll see what happens.”
Living in Loughborough for the past 12 years has done little to dilute either her Highland accent or her passion for the Scotland football team.
With fans having been given the green light to attend matches at this summer’s European Championships, the small matter of England versus Scotland on June 18 is already ringed in her diary.
“I’m really hoping to get to one of the Euros games – the England vs Scotland game at Wembley would be great,” she adds.
“That’s closer for me than Glasgow although I love going to Hampden.
“Competing there at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 was awesome as I’m a massive Scotland fan so had been there loads of time as a spectator. So to then compete there was incredible.
“I could actually have been a footballer if I’d stuck at it. I had to make a decision around the age of 18 as I was a goalkeeper and kept breaking things – my wrist, my thumb.
“I had been doing discus since I was around 13 so had to make a decision and I went with that one. I used to do all different events and they needed someone for discus one day and I did it and won it! So that was the start of that.”
The constant demands of training five days a week alongside her job as a psychiatric nurse in a high-security mental health hospital can’t go on forever.
Her personal best, however, has secured her a qualifying standard for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and she will work towards that before making a decision on what’s next.
“That’s been in my thoughts so I’m glad I’ve got the qualifying standard out the way so I don’t need to worry about that,” she admits. "Next year is Birmingham and also the Europeans so I’ll definitely keep going until the end of 2022. And then I’ll see where I am at that point.
“It would be nice to see a few more Scottish discus throwers coming through. If I’m going to retire in the next year or two it would be great to see someone stepping in to take over.
“I think they need to have more people out and about looking for potential throwers and doing a bit of a PR job on the sport.
“There’s this perception that throwers are all fat when that’s not the case! Height plays a big part and having long levers – there’s a lot of athleticism required.
“It’s definitely a lot of hard work but I love it and hope other girls will give it a try too.”
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